Having dropped three straight games, Creighton’s season is at an early-season crossroads. Their next three games are away from home, and if their shooting slump continues without an adjustment to counter it, they could be riding a five-game losing streak (or four out of five) heading into the Big East opener at Marquette.
Not ideal.
“We’re getting everybody’s best shot,” Greg McDermott said on the postgame radio show after the loss to Nebraska. Noting that his team began the season with four buy games and four games against ranked teams, he added “when you’re playing ranked teams everybody gets up for those. This is the first game we’ve had against a good team where we have a target on our back and we get their best shot. We’ve gotta get used to that. It’s going to happen the next two games, too. We’ve got some work to do.”
After attempting a school-record 40 threes in a loss to Nebraska (and making just 10), and turning it over on 16 of 72 possessions (22%, a season worst) there certainly is work to do. It was an uninspired performance in every facet, and the fact that it happened against Nebraska of all teams has unleashed a groundswell of angst all week.
And now they’re off to the desert for two games in Las Vegas, with their home arena occupied by Bud Crawford on Saturday and the NCAA Volleyball Final Four this coming week. 9-1 Arizona State, 40th in KenPom and 30th in the NET, looms on Monday night. The Sun Devils are just one point away from being undefeated (losing 67-66 in OT to Texas Southern), and are actually three spots higher than the Jays, whose computer metrics plummeted after the loss to the Huskers. CU clocked in at #33 in the first official NET ranking this week.
But first up is BYU, a team with struggles of their own. The Cougars are #213 in the NET and #99 in KenPom, riding a two-game losing streak of their own. They’re not a good team — and those aren’t my words, they’re the words of their head coach, Mark Pope. After three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis where they lost winnable games to USC and Butler and needed a 23-point comeback to beat Dayton, he said “we have a long way to go. We’re not a great team right now.”
After falling behind South Dakota by 21 points at home and playing defense described as “listless” by the Salt Lake Tribune, they rallied to make it a game before losing by one. Pope went after his team again, telling the media that “There’s a price to winning. We all talk about the words, but very few of us ever get to really know what that is in our guts, like really know what that means. I think that’s where we are feeling our most uncertainly right now is how far away we are from actually understanding.”
As for that defense, which ranks 309th in three-point defense (opponents shoot 37.7%) and 196th in effective field goal percentage (50.6%), Pope has been despondent in interviews, saying in one that his team needs to “skip a couple of beats” to even be competitive on that side of the ball.
He continued to hit his team with cold water after Wednesday’s 75-60 home loss to Utah Valley, saying that “I think that you learn from this in one of a couple of ways. You can learn from it because you have great leadership. You can learn from it because you have unbelievable experience. Or you can learn from it because the game just bludgeons you until you get so desperate that you’re willing to do anything to win. We’re pretty far away from any of those solutions right now.”
Offensively, they’re one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country, making just 28.6% (324th in D1) despite 43.8% of their overall shot attempts coming from behind the arc. Basically, Creighton’s shooting performance against Nebraska has been BYU’s entire season. Combined with pedestrian shooting inside the arc (51.5% on two-pointers, 126th) and poor free throw shooting (68.0%, 256th) the Cougars often struggle to score. And they’ve been sloppy with the ball, too, turning it over on 22.2% of possessions (323rd) and losing it on a steal 12.8% of the time (349th).
In their two losses last week, BYU had 25 assists and 37 turnovers while allowing the opposition to shoot a combined 23-for-47 from three-point range. So Pope’s words may be harsh, but they’re hard to argue with.
They knew the loss of senior point guard Alex Barcello would hurt — he knew the team’s playbook backwards and forwards, had a fierce competitive streak and defended like a bulldog. And with 12 new players, growing pains were always going to be part of the story for BYU this year. But the extent to which they’ve struggled to replace Barcello’s leadership and reliability has been surprising.
Coastal Carolina transfer Rudi Williams has stepped into Barcello’s spot in the lineup, and leads the team in scoring at 12.4 points per game. His playmaking ability is evident, assisting on 24.3% of BYU’s baskets when he’s been on the floor. But he’s also been loose with the ball, turning it over 37 times in 10 games. And he’s been the worst offender from behind the arc, as 42 of his 95 shot attempts have been threes — he’s made just 12 of them. When the 6’2” Williams gets to the rim, he’s been really good (20-of-32 at the rim). But he too often settles for jump shots, where he’s really not good (including 8-of-21 on two-point jumpers).
6’6” senior Gideon George is second in scoring at 12.1 points per game, and has struggled for the same reason as Williams — 39 of his 94 shot attempts have been threes, and he’s only made 13. It’s a recurring theme, as the Cougars routinely take low-percentage shots. George has shown promise as a power wing, as shown in an NIT win over Northern Iowa last March where he scored 27 points (5-of-6 on twos, 5-of-9 on threes). When he goes to work inside the arc George has been a reliable scorer this year, making 18-of-28 at the rim and 11-of-27 on midrange jumpers. When he gets pushed out behind the arc, it’s another story.
Likewise for 6’7” Jaxson Robinson, who played for Texas A&M and Arkansas before landing in Provo. 53 of his 66 shot attempts have been threes, and he’s made 15. It’s where the loss of Spencer Johnson hurts most acutely, because he’s been their best perimeter threat while averaging 11.0 points per game. He’s missed the last four games with a knee injury and is unlikely to play Saturday.
Inside, 6’6” 240-pound Fousseyni Traore (11.8 ppg., 8.3 rpg.) has done it all for the Cougars. He’s almost automatic on the block, making 34-of-43 from near the rim. And only 16 of those shots have come via an assist, with nearly as many (10) coming via an offensive rebound putback. He’s grabbed an offensive rebound on 13.5% of his team’s missed shots when he’s been on the floor, a rate that ranks 80th among all D1 players.
6’11” Noah Waterman is a defense-stretcher, making 11-of-27 (40.7%) of his threes this year. Playing on his third school in four years, Waterman has been an elite three-point shooter everywhere he’s been. Two years ago at Detroit Mercy he was 38-of-72, an incomprehensible 52.8% to rank third-best in all of D1. And while he fell off a bit last year, shooting “only” 36-of-96 (37.5%), he’s back at it this year with BYU. His ability to shoot at a high clip from outside pulls opposing bigs out away from the rim, creating offensive rebound opportunities for Traore.
Interestingly, both Williams and Waterman came off the bench in their last game as the Cougars seek to change their fortunes. A pair of freshmen (6’5” Richie Saunders and 6’4” Dallin Hall) got the nod against UVU.
- Tip: 9:00pm Omaha time
- Venue: Michelob ULTRA Arena, Las Vegas, NV
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Brandon Gaudin and Nick Bahe
- In Omaha: Cox channel 78 (SD), 1078 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 620 (SD), 1620 (HD)
- Outside Omaha: FS1 Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 219, Dish Network channel 150
- Cable Cutters: Available on all major streaming platforms
- Streaming on the Fox Sports app and website
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- BYU is 11-of-59 (18.6 percent) from behind the arc in their last two games, including a 4-of-26 performance in Wednesday’s setback to Utah Valley.
- The Cougars have scored 20 or more points in the paint in all 10 games this season including 28 in three straight games. They scored a season-high 46 against Butler at the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlanits where Traore recorded a 21-point, 12 rebound double-double.
- Saturday’s game marks BYU’s sixth neutral site game in its last seven games, across two countries and two states.
- After starting the year making just 5-of-28 shots from three-point range, senior guard Francisco Farabello made 5-of-9 long-range attempts en route to scoring a career-high 16 points last Sunday vs. Nebraska. Farabello shot 40.2 percent (76-189) from three-point range in three seasons at TCU.
- Baylor Scheierman has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in six of his first 10 games this season, and has five double-doubles to date. His 9.7 rebounds per game average is the best mark by a Bluejay since Benoit Benjamin averaged 14.1 rebounds per game in 1984-85. With 10 or more rebounds vs. BYU on Saturday, Scheierman can become the first Bluejay since Gregory Echenique 10 years ago (Jan. 7-15, 2012) to compile four straight double-digit rebound games.
- This is Creighton’s eighth trip ever to Las Vegas. The Bluejays are 9-3 all-time in Las Vegas, and 5-1 under Greg McDermott.
BYU leads the all-time series against Creighton by a 7-4 count, but the teams have split two previous meetings on neutral courts. Last year’s game took place at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., and saw Creighton top the No. 24 Cougars, 83-71.
Saturday’s game in Las Vegas against BYU will be just Creighton’s second neutral-site game not associated with an MTE since December 12th, 1970 (a 106-86 loss to North Carolina in Charlotte). The only other game since then was last year’s victory over BYU played at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Greg McDermott is 1-2 all-time against BYU and 1-0 against Mark Pope.
On December 10, 2003, Creighton beat Nebraska for the fifth consecutive time, winning 61-54 in the teams’ first meeting at Qwest Center Omaha. The 15,561 fans in attendance made it Creighton’s largest home crowd at the time, as they witnessed Creighton extend their home winning streak to 22 games — a streak which would eventually reach 28 before Southern Illinois beat them in February. In the winning effort over the Huskers, Nate Funk and Brody Deren each had 13 points to pace the Jays, while Mike Grimes had 12.
The Bottom Line:
Creighton is favored by nine on KenPom, and by 8.5 in Vegas sportsbooks. ESPN’s BPI gives the Jays a 79.5% chance of victory. It has the look of a “get right” game for the Jays where they can stretch out their rotation and bench and get back on the winning side of the ledger.
#21 Creighton 77, BYU 67
